Banking on biomarkers for synthetic lethality

Repare thinks its biomarker-first approach could be a key differentiator for its synthetic lethal cancer drug programs. The company is collaborating with test developers ahead of time to recruit patients poised to benefit.

Losing function in two or more genes that have a synthetic lethal relationship triggers cell death, a phenomenon exploited by PARP inhibitors in patients with BRCA-mutant cancers. Repare Therapeutics Inc. is one of a slew of companies seeking to capitalize on this principle by inhibiting targets that have synthetic lethal interactions with genes frequently mutated in cancer. The goal is selective killing of tumor cells. ...